The Doctor and The Hunter
by Masters of the Multiverse
Summary: Samus Aran has been on the run for several months now, ever since the X incident. One day, as she was simply trying to lay low, out of sight, an anomaly in space sends her crashing into another planet, where she meets a strange man with blue box. From there, a new adventure (and more) begins.
1. The Man With the Box

_**The Man With the Box**_

-o-

_Samus Aran's Log: Entry 1_

_Had to get a new log program. The old one was confiscated when the Federation had me on that station with the X parasites running around. the Biologic Space Laboratories, or BSL for short. Here's hoping this doesn't bite me in the ass someday._

_The Galactic Federation is still after me. What a way to reward somebody who saved the galaxy more times than I can count, huh? Well, they can chase me all they want. If they somehow catch up with me, I won't go down without a fight… though, honestly, I'd prefer to save the fighting for only when absolutely necessary._

_I'll update this log whenever something interesting happens. Here's hoping nothing interesting happens._

-o-

_Samus Aran's Log: Entry 2_

_I managed to take down a Space Pirate base on some remote planet. They've apparently been trying to weaponize Metroids again. You'd think they would've learned their lesson by now. I killed off all the Metroids there. Hopefully, the pirates learn to steer clear of the little beasts. They probably won't, though._

-o-

_Samus Aran's Log: Entry 3_

_It's been a few weeks since I updated this thing. The Federation almost caught me recently. Stopped on the economic world Randu. Plenty of places to hide. A seedy place, too. It would've been the last place anybody would've looked for me. Got a job as a bartender for good measure. Humiliating, really, but necessary. Dyed my hair black, too._

_Whoever ratted me out likely recognized me solely by my face. The whole casino I was working in for three weeks ended up condemned. I would've gone back to check on the others who worked there, but Federation troopers were already combing the place. I had to run._

-o-

_Samus Aran's Log: Entry 4_

_People romanticize the idea of being on the run way too much. They see big adventures, meeting new and interesting people, discovering lost worlds and treasures, blah, blah, blah. It's nowhere as good as that. A lot of the people I've met since gong on the lamb have either been arrested or killed. Sometimes both. And the only new planet I've found so far was filled with savage beasts that tried to eat me. No surprise, really, considering all that I've been through in my life. If something didn't want you dead, odds are, it was probably already dead itself. I might sound jaded talking like that, but I've seen enough to know that for a fact._

-o-

_Samus Aran's Log: Entry 5_

_I found a distress beacon on an uncharted planet recently. When I investigated, I found that a Pirate frigate had crashed into a mountain. Some Aerotroopers tried to kill me when I arrived. I killed them, and every other Pirate on that frigate._

_Bastards were researching Metroids again. Only one of the little monsters survived the crash. Ice Beam and missiles. Works every time._

-o-

Samus leaned back in her seat as she finished that last entry. The Pirates were never going to learn. That much she knew for a fact. Still, it was pretty gratifying to once again act as a "major cause of setbacks" for the Pirates.

She yawned tiredly as she stared up the cockpit's ceiling, feeling bored. Bored was good, as much as she hated it. Usually, whenever something exciting happened around her, things tended to violently explode, planets included. And normally, people weren't spared.

She sighed through her nose as she thought back to everyone she had known in her life. Old Bird, the elderly Chozo who had raised her like his own daughter. Anthony Higgs, the man who had treated her like a sister since the moment they first met. Adam and Ian Malkovich, then two men who had acted like father and brother figures respectively. All of those people were dead and gone, except for one, and he was in the Federation military.

Samus Aran wasn't normally the type to linger in the past. Too many dark moments. Too much death. These days, however, she had little else to do. On the bright side, it allowed her to think more clearly about herself. She was willing to admit that she had made more than her fair share of mistakes, and she was likely to make more. She wasn't sure what the future held for her, but she would at least try to make better decisions.

A sudden beep on her ship's scanners caught her attention, pulling her from her musings. Something had been picked up by various scans. Odd distortions in space, mostly. It was vaguely similar to the portals back on Aether, but with a lot more power behind them. There was also some sort of disturbance on several other frequencies that her ship's computer couldn't identify. Whatever the source of the disturbance was, it was focused over a planet not too far from her position. Cautious curiosity took over as she maneuvered her ship towards the disturbance.

After several minutes of flying, she stopped in orbit of the planet – which she recognized as the mining world Krawna – where the disturbance was waiting. She could see some kind of distortion of light in the distance. She had her ship scan the distortion. Results showed that this was definitely the disturbance she had discovered. What was it, exactly? Could it be some sort of natural phenomenon that has yet to be recorded? Or was it an artificial happening caused by some kind of experiment? Was it-?

Just then, the distortion grew in severity, and a blue streak suddenly blasted out of it, straight toward the planet below. The resulting shockwave threw her ship completely off balance, overloading numerous systems as her craft became a victim of planet Krawna's gravity, dragging her down into the atmosphere proper.

Alarms blared all over Samus's ship, lights flashing red and the computer's stuttering voice alerting her to the failure of multiple systems. A red blaze surrounded the outside of her craft as it hit terminal velocity. All she could do was desperately hold onto her chair as the ship hurtled toward the ground and hope that she wouldn't be killed by the inevitable crash. She closed her eyes and clenched her hands onto the sturdiest thing she could reach; her ship's pilot's seat was designed to remain rooted in place no matter what. Anything short of total destruction of the ship would have very little chance at moving the thing.

The cockpit gradually began to get hotter and hotter as she plummeted towards Krawna's surface. She could feel beads of sweat already forming on her head. She could instinctively tell that she would end up hitting the ground in less than a minute now.

_**Galactic Federation Krawna Planetary Security Station, Outpost Aegis**_

There was nothing more dull than a posting at a security station. "Security station" was just a fancy way of saying "middle of nowhere." It wasn't all that bad, in a way. Meals were rubbish, but at least the Federation wasn't always breathing down their necks. That was just single perk out of all the boredom, though. Not much to outweigh it.

It didn't help that it was so late, either. Nearly one in the morning, in Earth standard hours, and no sleep. Not even the notorious Samus Aran would withstand such a thing, according to the station CO. No one believed that, though. The woman was famous for single-handedly destroying a planet, for God's sake.

A trooper sat alone in the monitor room, staring at a screen that had shown nothing for the last four weeks. Why this planet was so important to the Federation, he had no idea. Sure, Krawna was a mining world, but it didn't have much that would attract attention from the Federation's enemies. Maybe its tiny supply of Afloraltite, but as Fuel Gel gradually became more and more commonly used, Afloraltite was gradually becoming obsolete. Partly due to the large number of explosions and destruction it could cause with a mere spark, where Fuel Gel was far more stable until the time came for it to be used on ships or generators. It did have the pesky quality of flash freezing in cold temperatures, but that was easily solved by the use of plasma pipes to keep it warm while shipping or processing.

The trooper was just considering going to sleep right in his chair when one of the monitors beeped. Some kind of spacial anomaly, along with some sort of unknown energy. The energy resembled the theoretical models of Huon particles… but that was surely impossible, since no evidence of their existence had ever been found. Scans also picked up two unknown crafts entering the atmosphere. One was evidently advanced beyond what the Federation had ever seen. The other…

The trooper's eyes went wide, and he hit the alarm and turned on the PA system. "Samus Aran is on the planet! Repeat, Samus Aran is on the planet!" He turned to the monitors again, a mix of excitement of anxiousness running through his mind. He wanted something interesting to happen. This was perhaps a little too interesting.

Just as he turned around to look for his weapon, he caught something out of the corner of his eye in one of the monitors. It looked like… an angel? He looked at the monitor, but saw nothing more than rocks and dust. He shrugged it off, and went for his gear.

-o-

Samus Aran was no stranger to waking up in a crash site. It had happened to her more times than she cared to admit. That didn't mean she was a fan of it. She groaned groggily and painfully as she sat up in her chair. True to her hopes, it hadn't budged, and she wasn't too badly injured. A few nicks here, a bruise or two there. Nothing her ship's medbay couldn't fix. The ship itself, however… was a different story. A fuel line had snapped, leaving her grounded until the self-repair protocols kicked in. Still, this was nowhere as bad as that time on the planet Elysium, when the Phazon crazed bounty hunter, Ghor, completely trashed it. It should be fixed quickly, an hour tops. Hopefully nothing would try to kill her during that time period.

She climbed out of the ship through entry on the roof, which, thankfully, saw minimal damage. She was in some sort of forest made of trees that were vaguely reminiscent of bamboo on Earth, except these were bright red and orange, and had Zoomers crawling around on them. Not the weirdest thing she had ever seen, but still pretty up there.

Out of pure habit, she activated her Power Suit and stepped off of her ship, landing deftly on the ground below. She quickly scanned her surroundings, which were, in all honesty, pretty bland. Her helmet's built-in computer software beeped and brought up her map. That spacial anomaly had apparently launched something onto the planet's surface, though she couldn't really tell what it was. This would require investigation, and a little bit of stealth. The last thing she needed was for the Federation to find her. They probably already knew she was here, anyway.

Her computer indicated that the source of the anomaly's energies was fairly close by. About click west of her position. Going there in Morph Ball mode would probably help her avoid unwanted attention, and the Boost Ball would speed up travel considerably. Sure, using the regular Speed Boost would also do wonders, but it'd be far easier to detect. Nodding to herself, Samus activated the Morph Ball function and rocketed off towards the energy source's location, passing numerous creatures and plant life on her way.

Eventually, she came across a crater, not nearly as large as she was expecting. The energy source was at the bottom of the pit. She was slightly reluctant to go down there. The last time she investigated an energy source in a crater, she ended up fighting a gigantic Metroid that turned into a sadistic clone of her. She was about to decide on leaving the energy alone, when she heard the one thing she did not expect to hear: a voice, deep down the crater.

"Oh, come on!" a heavily accented male voice rang from the pit. "What is wrong with you? It was a small spatial flux, not a supernova!"

Samus hadn't expected to hear a British guy down in a crater. Was he somebody who stumbled across it?

"Oh, don't give me that! If someone knows how to travel through space and time, it's me!"

Or he could be a local crazy. That was something she was somewhat familiar with, unfortunately. Still, her conscience told her to investigate and see what he was doing down there. She couldn't just let him hurt himself.

"Oi! You, up there! Don't suppose you could come down here and help me out?"

She stared down at an odd man. His head was mostly shaven, but not bald. He wore a black leather jacket, his pants were the same color, and his eyes… they held pain and suffering that could only come from war, something Samus herself was all too familiar with. He also looked… old. Far older than his appearance suggested. It wasn't rare to find alien species that aged slowly, but a human?

Regardless, she nodded and slid down the crater's edge and approached him, not saying a word just yet.

"Hello!" he said cheerfully. "I'm the Doctor, pleased to make your acquaintance, Mister, uh… what's your name?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. She had expected that, but she didn't much appreciate it. "I'm Samus Aran. And I'm a woman." The man didn't even flinch.

"Oh, very well then, Miss. Just wondering if you could help me get my ship running."

"Ship?" He pointed to a blue box behind him that looked like one of those old payphone things she had seen in old history vids. Atop its door was a sign that read "Police Public Call Box," and on its roof was a primitive-looking siren light. "That's… not a ship." The man scoffed at her.

"Ah, humans. No matter where I go, you apes always pop up. One of the things I must say I admire about you people. You're like cockroaches, always showing up where you least expect them," the man said cheerfully.

"Are you deliberately insulting me?" Samus asked, feeling like he was.

"Well, I'm not exactly complimenting you, am I?"

She glared at him, though she knew he couldn't see her face through her visor. This guy was clearly an idiot. She hated having to deal with people like this. She had about half a mind to leave the man behind in this crater to take care of his stupid box on his own. In fact, she was going to do just that. She shook her head and turned to leave.

"Oh, by the way, you wouldn't happen to have seen any angel-shaped statues, have you?"

Samus stopped and turned to him. "Statues?"

"Yeah. Nasty pieces of work, really." He stopped for a moment, lost in thought. "Although, come to think of it, if you had seen them, I doubt we'd be talking right now. Nevermind." The man turned to the box and fetched a key from his pocket. "Come on, I'll show you around." He opened the box's right door and went inside, leaving the door wide open. Samus raised an eyebrow at the man's behavior, but decided to investigate, if only to humor him. Warily, she approached the box, arm cannon in front of her in case the man tried to ambush her. True to her training, she took cover on the left door, which had remained closed, and peered inside…

Slowly, she stepped inside, and her jaw fell. She walked outside of the box, just to make sure she wasn't just seeing things. She shook her head. She must've been seeing things. She stepped inside the box again, staring at the expansive room in front of her. She blinked, removed her helmet, letting her blond ponytail fall out, and rubbed her eyes to try and stop herself from seeing this figment of her imagination. It was still there. It was real.

"It's… bigger on the inside," she muttered in shock and amazement. The Doctor grinned when she said that.

"Oh, I just love it when people say that!" he said with glee as he pulled a few levers and pushed some buttons. "Now, thankfully, I seem to have crash landed right in front of a rift in space and time. Here's where I'll need your help. Would you mind pressing that big red button over there while I hold this down?" He pointed at a button at the other side of the console. "It will open up the engines and let the TARDIS soak up the energy released by the rift and I'll be able to get it out of here. Hopefully before the Angels find us, because I do not want to face them right now."

Samus just stared at him as he worked at the console in the center of the huge room. She shook her head and replaced her helmet over her head. "First thing's first," she said. "You never really answered my question from earlier. Who are you? What the hell is this thing? What Angels?" The Doctor looked a bit annoyed, but turned to her anyway.

"I'm the Doctor, the last of the Time Lords. This is the TARDIS. It stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space." He then stepped away from the console and showed her a very crude drawing of an angel. "These are the Weeping Angels. Quantum-locked beings that thrive on temporal energy. To feed, they send people back in time and feed off the energy released by the alteration in the timeline. I was running from a group of them when I was caught in a time-space distortion that left me stranded on this planet." His cheerful smile returned as suddenly as it left. "There we go. Now help me with the button."

"Wait a minute. If those Angels were chasing you, and they're a hostile species, then shouldn't something be done? If they followed you, then it's likely that they ended up here on Krawna, too."

"Krawna? Never heard of that planet. What galaxy are we in?"

"The… Milky Way."

"But… hold on a moment." The Doctor ran around the console, checking several displays and meters. "This… can't be right… I'm… in another universe!?/em" He looked around the room, then at himself. "Well, I'm still alive and the TARDIS is somehow still running. Fantastic!" The man's words (and attitude) confused the blonde bounty hunter. "Anyway, the Angels aren't hostile. They're just hungry. We just happen to be the food. Not like we can harm them anyway. Hard to kill stone, you know?"

"Still, something should be done," Samus persisted. "Krawna is mining world, but their quarry is growing obsolete. They only have one security station here, and it's run by a barebones team of Federation troopers. There are hundreds of innocent people on this planet. If those Angels are as dangerous as you say, then the people who live here could be in danger. I'm not about to leave them for dead." With that, she exited the TARDIS, leaving the man calling himself the "Doctor" behind.

Just as she left the blue box, she happened to look up at the rim of the crater. Right where she had originally been standing at the edge of the crater was statue of an angel with its hands covering its face. An angel-shaped statue? Where did that come from? Unless… could it be one of those Angels that the Doctor had been talking about? She eyed the statue with cautious curiosity. Then she blinked.

Instantly, the statue was just a few feet away from her, in its exact same pose. She stumbled back in surprise, tripping over a rock and landing on her rear. Now the statue was even closer, and its hands were moved away from its face, revealing a hideous, fanged snarl, its hands outstretched as if to try and capture her. She aimed her arm cannon at the statue and blasted away at it from her prone position, chipping away large portions of it until it was rubble.

She panted heavily, the sudden adrenaline rush from the panic fading gradually. How did that thing move so fast? She blinked once, and it was almost close enough to touch her! Was it some form of teleportation? She shook her head. Teleportation would've had a sound and light to it. This thing must've simply moved. That's when she felt a hand touch her shoulder. Standing next to her was the Doctor, staring intently at the statue's remains.

"Don't blink. Don't even blink." His previous cheer was all but gone. "I told you, they're quantum-locked. They won't move when someone's looking at them. It's a defense mechanism. You can't kill stone." He helped her up and slowly walked backwards towards the TARDIS. "I understand you want to help, but there's nothing we can do. I have faced many things in my life, and these are the only ones I know I can't do anything about. Even if you reduced this one to rubble, the minute you're not looking it'll be back to normal."

Samus looked to the Doctor, then to the rubble again. A part of her wanted to just get back to her ship, wait for it to finish its repairs, and then fly off, leaving this planet behind. But a larger part of her screamed at her to do something. That conscience that her mentor Old Bird hammered into her when she was young demanded that she do something. She glared at the Doctor.

"I'll find a way to kill these things," she said simply. She aimed her arm cannon at the rubble and launched a missile at the pile of rock, blasting the larger chunks into smaller bits and scattering other pieces farther apart. She faced the Doctor again. "I'm not going to run and hide from these things. If you want to leave innocent people to be killed or fed on or whatever, fine. Be my guest. But I'm not running." With that said, she turned and walked off, stomping on the Angel's remains for good measure as she left the man with the box behind. She heard the door of the box close, and decided to look over her shoulder, just to check on the man…

And an Angel was right behind her, arms outstretched and just about to touch her. She couldn't hold back the scream of fear that ripped through her throat when she saw it, forcing her to turn around completely. She risked looking behind the statue… and just like the man had said, the rubble was no longer there, and an Angel was in front of her. The damned thing had fixed itself!

She quickly composed herself and aimed her arm cannon at the thing. She kept her eyes on it as she tried to think of a way to get rid of this thing. Then, an idea came to mind. Not taking her eyes off the Angel, she switched from her basic Power Beam to the much more devastating Dark Beam. It had been a long time since she had used this weapon. As a test, she fire a single round at the Angel, blasting off one of its hands with the dark energy. Dark energy is effective against these things, it seems. Behind her helmet, Samus smirked and began charging the Dark Beam. Once it was fully charged, she activated her missile launcher, draining ten of the explosives as a large, slow-moving glob of antimatter barreled toward the Angel. Once the projectile landed, the Darkburst took effect and created its signature portal to God knows where, sending the Angel in pieces to its new destination.

Once the portal disappeared, Samus checked her missile reserves. She had no idea how of these Angels might've been running around, but she supposed she could find and get rid of them all relatively easily with the Darkburst. Sending them to a dark dimension where nothing can survive was definitely effective. She turned around and set off to look for more of the Angels, when she heard a footstep behind her. She turned, and saw the Doctor standing where the Angel once was, looking moderately impressed. He clapped at her.

"Well done. You managed to kill a Weeping Angel. The Shadow Proclamation would put your picture on the wall for doing so." He said cheerfully, before locking his gaze behind her. "Sadly, the Angels are very close to one another. Kill one…" He motioned behind her. Fear rose in Samus's gut as she slowly turned around yet again. Just as she had feared, there were more Angels behind her. "... and the rest come to take revenge… or find out how you did it." He approached her, not taking his eyes off the statues. "I went looking for the ones that the Angels already used as food. There's a reason they are called the Kind Killers, you know. All of them were sent back to a time where the mineral mined in this rock was actually very valuable. Why not just let them send them back? Instead of, you know, angering them and creating the possibility of getting your neck snapped while you aren't looking."

Samus wanted to turn to glare at the Doctor, but decided not to give the Angels a chance to rush her. "They don't belong in the past. If you can get them back, bring them back. I'll take care of the rest of these piles of rock."

"Has anyone ever told you that you are a very stubborn woman?" The Doctor asked, annoyed. "Anyway, I can't bring them back here. They belong in the past now. If I brought them here, it could create a distortion in time that would rip this whole planet in two and kill anyone still on it." The man then walked past her, carrying a set of mirrors. Carefully, he placed a mirror in front of each angel. "There we go. This should keep them from moving for a while." He turned back to Samus, and his face lost all color, even his massive ears. "Oh…" Samus turned to see what had caused such a reaction from the man…

The rim of the crater was completely surrounded by Angels. Each of them had a furious snarl on their faces, and they were glaring… right at Samus. "Okay…" the Hunter muttered, silently praying to whatever deities might've been listening. "What now?" She felt the Doctor grab her free hand. She was startled by the sudden contact, but even more so by what he said.

"Run."

For once, Samus was okay with that sort of plan. Samus hated running. It made her feel… not herself. As they ran, a part of her begged to turn around and face this new enemy just like any other. Her pride demanded that she face them and fight. However, for better or worse, logic and reason spoke louder. There were too many of those Angels, and the Darkburst would take too long to charge, and she didn't have enough missiles to get rid of them all. They would snap her neck or worse if they caught her. The Doctor had made that explicitly clear. The two were running towards the blue box, back to back to keep looking at the Angels. He assured her the Angels would not be able to get in the TARDIS…

"... I hope…" He added as an after thought. Truth is, he knew the Angels could damage the TARDIS from the outside. Their quantum-locked physiology did not agree with the sentient ship.

As they ran, Samus began charging another Darkburst. Hopefully, the Angels would hold still just long enough for a good few of them to get pulled into its black hole. Once fully charged, she turned and unleashed the weapon. Unfortunately, only one Angel was within the portal's range. The others had apparently kept their distance as they chased them, likely out of newfound caution.

"We need to find the Federation outpost!" Samus shouted. It was the last place she wanted to go, but with her ship on the fritz, and the Doctor's impossible box surrounded by those things, they didn't have very many options available. At the very least, the walls of the outpost would buy them time to think of a plan. She contacted her ship's computer and downloaded a updated map of the main colony area on Krawna. The outpost wasn't too far away. Two clicks south of their current position. There was only one way to get there ahead of the Angels that she could think of. She grabbed the Doctor's arm, and with a yelp from the man, she pulled him onto her back piggyback style. "Hold on!"

"What are you-?" He was interrupted by a loud buzzing sound emanating from Samus's armor, which was beginning to glow brightly. Two seconds later, they blasted off southward, the Doctor screaming the whole way, though whether it was from excitement or terror, Samus couldn't be sure. If it was the latter, it'd be understandable. The former, and she'd be completely certain that he's either an idiot or completely insane. They arrived rapidly to the outpost, and the rather dazed Doctor got off her back. "That… was fantastic!" he exclaimed cheerfully. Apparently, it had been the former after all.

"You're either insane, an idiot, or both," said Samus as she panted slightly. Using the Speed Booster for so long wasn't good for her physical health. One of the main reasons she refrained from using it very often. "We need to get inside before those things catch up with-" She interrupted by the sound of guns clicking. They were surrounded by Federation troopers now, all with their guns aimed and ready to fire. Samus groaned silently to herself. She saw this coming, but there wasn't much other choice.

"Stay right where you are!" one of the troopers barked at them. "Hands in the air! Samus Aran, you are under arrest for treason against the Galactic Federation and sabotage of Federation property! Depower your armor and surrender immediately, or we will open fire!"

"Wait, treason?" the Doctor asked. "You're a criminal?"

"Long story," Samus replied simply. "Now's not the time to get into it." She stepped forward, armor still active. The troopers backed away when she approached. That was one part of her reputation she secretly enjoyed. People knew to steer clear of her whenever she approached in full armor. "This whole planet is in grave danger. A race of aliens called…" She trailed off, turning to the Doctor for reference.

"Ah, Weeping Angels."

Samus nodded and faced the GF troopers again. "A race of aliens called the Weeping Angels are on Krawna right now. I don't know where they came from, but they are extremely dangerous. We need to get rid of them as soon as possible."

"And why should we believe a criminal?" one trooper asked. Samus noticed his gun shake slightly.

She sighed and turned to where she had fled from the Angels. Sure enough, there were already two popping out from the treeline. She pointed to them and said, "Those statues are alive. You blink, and they'll rush you like a rabid Grenchler until you open your eyes."

"Living statues?" the nervous trooper said skeptically. "Please! That's-!" Samus blinked at that moment. A loud crack was heard just she opened her eyes. The trooper who had been speaking lay dead at the base of one of the Angels, his head lying at an odd angle. The other troopers panicked and fired on the statue, blasting it apart until it was rubble, just as Samus had done with that first one.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?" the first trooper shouted in fear.

"His neck's broken!" said another trooper who was kneeling over the deceased soldier. "That thing killed him!" The Doctor then looked around.

"Alright, NOBODY BLINK!" He yelled. "I want everyone to slowly form a circle, facing outwards…"

"And how do we know you're not working with those things?" yet another trooper asked, his gun aimed at the Angels that had broken past the treeline.

"Do you have a better idea to get away from them?" Samus retorted. "Your security station is one of the safest places on the planet right now. It can buy us time to come up with a way to deal with the Angels." The troopers looked to each other briefly, then complied with the Doctor's earlier command, keeping their weapons trained on the Angels as the whole group slowly backed into the station. Once inside, one trooper hit a button, and an armored door slid down. There was a collective sigh of relief, followed by the sound of something scratching at the door, trying to get in.

"Okay… now what?" the first trooper asked.

"Who's in charge here?" Samus asked.

"That'd be me. Lieutenant John Reeves."

"Seal off every entrance, anything that can be used to get inside the station." She turned to the other troopers. "If there are any doubters left, go to your barracks and wait until Reeves gives the all clear." She faced the Doctor. "You know more about these things than we do. Do you have anything that can help us? A plan or something?"

The man eyed her arm cannon for a moment. "What was it you used against that first Angel?"

"A weapon called the Darkburst," the Hunter explained. "I'm not entirely certain how it works, to be honest, but it sends all targets in range to some sort of pocket dimension. At least, that's what the ones who created it told me when I got it. Why?" The Doctor pulled out a small, tube-like device, and grabbed Samus's cannon arm. He activated the device, making it emit a soft blue light and a rather annoying humming sound. "What is that thing?" She asked, alarmed that someone was messing with her suit.

"A Sonic Screwdriver," he said simply, pointing the device at different points of the cannon. Not long after, Samus's HUD filled with hundreds of algorithms and new software. "There we go. I upgraded your cannon's firing ability…" A text box popped up on her screen:

_**Seeker missile system upgraded: Darkburst, Sunburst and Sonic Boom capabilities added**_

_**Missile production algorithms upgraded. Missile capacity increased by 50%**_

To say the blonde bounty hunter was shocked was an understatement. It was hard to find technology compatible with the Chozo Power Suit tech, due to how advanced it was, and yet this man had used a small "screwdriver" to make her arm cannon pack even more of a punch. She looked at her cannon for a second, before turning to the Doctor.

"How did you do that?" she half asked, half demanded. The man twirled the device in his hand.

"My personal tool. It does everything and anything," he proclaimed proudly, but then muttered something incomprehensible. "Now, with your weapon, we should be able to chase off the Angels."

Samus shook her head. "These things are too dangerous," she said simply. "I'm going to get rid of them." She turned to the trooper closest to the armored door. "Open the gate on my word." The soldier nodded, his hand at the ready over the button. Samus readied her arm cannon, focused but still awed by the large sphere of dark energy forming over it. The power it held was… amazing, to say the least. She waited for the sphere to fully charge… "NOW!" The soldier pressed the button. Outside, at least two dozens of angels were waiting, snarling and preparing to attack the door. Samus released an onslaught of missiles at them, immediately consuming over 50 missiles and practically all the Dark Beam ammo she had. It was worth it, however, as the missiles created the massive implosion needed to suck in all the angels into the pocket dimension of the Darkburst. To the relief of everyone present, not a single Angel was in sight after the attack. The radars showed no statues nearby. Samus sighed in relief, thinking the danger was over. However, her relief was short lived, as...

*Chu-chink!*

All the troopers turned their weapons at Samus. The lieutenant sighed sadly.

"I'm sorry, Aran," He said glumly. "You just saved our lives, and we appreciate it more than you can imagine. But we have direct orders to take you in, dead or alive, if we ever see you." Samus took a step back. She knew they had direct orders, but she had hoped that saving their asses would be enough to at least let her get away this time. Too much to hope for, she guesses. Before she could do anything, the Doctor stood between her and the troopers, and addressed the Lieutenant.

"Oi! Have you been living under a rock or something?" he chided the soldier. "That order was pulled back ages ago! I can't believe no one sent you the update!" The lieutenant's expression went from sad to confused.

"Pulled back? Under whose authority?" He asked, suspicious. The Doctor brought out a leather object from his pocket and flipped it open.

"That would be mine, soldier," he answered the Lieutenant. All the soldiers straightened up and saluted the man, even the lieutenant.

"Forgive us, Admiral!" The Lieutenant said, not breaking his salute. "We weren't informed of the change of orders." The Doctor smiled and put away his little leather pocket.

"As you were, soldiers." He said as cheery as ever. "Now, your new orders are to leave this planet and declare it a hazard zone. Alright?" The men nodded. The Doctor's smile went from mammoth ear to mammoth ear. "Good! And please give Miss Aran any supplies you can spare."

The troopers saluted and scattered to do as ordered, leaving Samus completely baffled. "Wait, you're an admiral?"

"Oh, no," the Doctor replied with a laugh. He showed her the object he showed the troopers. In it was a blank piece of paper. "Slightly psychic paper, Miss Aran. Looks like anything I need it to. Well, for anyone vulnerable to psychic influence, at least. It's gotten me out of more jams than you can count."

Samus stared at the man for a moment, then shook her head. "You're an odd one, aren't you?"

"I've been called worse," the Doctor admitted with a nonchalant shrug.

After a few minutes, the GF troopers had given Samus what she needed to top off her ammunition and recharge her suit's shields. Back in top shape once again. Once she was done, she, accompanied by the Doctor, left the security station, heading for her ship.

It was still damaged, and still going through its auto-repair protocols. She was going to be on Krawna for a while, it seemed.

"Impressive tech," the Doctor commented. "I've honestly never seen anything quite like it. Not quite on par with the TARDIS, of course, but pretty close."

Samus scoffed as she deactivated her armor and climbed up onto her ship, heading for the rooftop entry. Before setting foot on the lift, she looked back at the Doctor, who was grinning stupidly. She narrowed her eyes. "Take a picture. It lasts longer." She was about to climb in when the Doctor's words stopped her.

"You could come with me, you know," he said. Samus looked at him, confused.

"And go where, exactly?" The man grinned even wider.

"Anywhere and anytime. I could take you to see the beginning of the Universe, the end of the Earth, the birth of your… Galactic Federation, I think you called it? I could even take you to witness your own birth if you wanted." He thought about that last sentence for a minute. "Actually, forget the latter. The paradoxes would be impossible to deal with." Samus was about to decline the man's offer, if it was even possible to travel through time, when a thought flashed through her mind. She turned to the man.

"Tell me… Would I be able to change events?" She asked, a small glimmer of hope in her voice. The man nodded.

"As long as the event isn't a fixed point in time, anything is possible." He answered. "It took me a moment to catch up, but I can tell you which events are Time Locked and which aren't." The Huntress looked at the man.

"... What about five years ago, coordinates 112-354, in the space station codenamed 'Bottle Ship'?" The Doctor closed his eyes, reading the flow of time.

"Hm… nope. The whole place is completely changeable. There's only one event locked: the death of a… Melissa Bergman?" Samus released a shaky sigh of relief.

"Yeah, I was there for that," she said somewhat sadly. "What if it was a death that no one actually witnessed?"

"I'm not sure…" The Doctor said, worried. "Saving the life of someone that was going to die can lead to some nasty paradoxes…" He looked at her. "What was his name?" Samus looked at him, wondering if she should tell him. There could be disastrous consequences. Still…

"His name was... Adam… Adam Malkovich."

-o-

He stood in the middle of the Metroid habitat, looking at the destruction he had caused. It wouldn't be long before the lab was jettisoned into space and destroyed. The blast would certainly kill every Metroid inside… plus himself. A part of him was happy, since Samus would be able to live a longer life than him. Another part… was crying, for he knew he wouldn't be there for her.

She liked to act tough. She liked to make herself appear stronger than anyone else in the room. But he knew what she was. She had seen things that he knew stuck with her, and would likely never leave her. She had suffered through ordeals he wouldn't wish upon his worst enemy, and yet she stayed strong. If she maintained that strength, he had no doubts that she would survive. Although… surviving and living weren't always the same thing.

An explosion blasted somewhere within the lab, followed by more blasts. They were getting closer and closer. This was the end for certain. Resigning himself to his fate, he set his rifle down on the ground and sat down next to it, leaning back against the console he had sabotaged. He chuckled to himself. The thing that would make this whole "self-sacrifice" cliché even more cliché is if he had a cigarette and a picture of Samus. Too bad he wasn't a smoker, but he did have a picture of her… He pulled it out and looked at it. It was the same picture that he often had in his office back headquarters, with him, Samus, and his brother Ian. He had meant to give it to Samus the next time he saw her, so he had been keeping it with him at all times for the past… he didn't even remember how long.

He leaned back and sighed. He knew the destruction of the lab would cause massive trouble for anyone in the squad that survived, Samus included. But at least they would live. And he'd rather have his little girl face the Galactic Council rather than have her die in this place.

He closed his eyes and waited. Honestly, he wouldn't want to go out any other way. Not that he'd mind living a little longer, but this way, he would die for a good cause. He mentally kept up with the countdown, wondering if he'd die from the blast or from a Metroid attack…

… and that's when he heard it.

A strange groaning, like some kind of alarm, but not quite. He opened his eyes, and saw something that made him wonder if the plant life around him had hallucinogenic qualities. A large, blue box with the words "POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX" written on top. He stared at it, completely dumbfounded, when the door opened, revealing a man with shaved head, a black leather jacket, and an ear-to-ear grin on his face.

"Hello, Mr. Malkovich. I'm the Doctor, pleased to meet you. Run for your life!" He motioned into the box. Adam stared at the man. "Come on, now! This whole place is about to blow!"

He shook his head, stood up with his rifle and hurried into the box, hoping he'd have enough space to make it less awkward for him and the stranger who was saving his life. He stopped once he was inside and gawked at the massive space in front of him. Not for long, though. A blue-clad fist smashed into his face, knocking him flat on his back. Before he could react, the same hand pulled him back up and pulled him into a hug that nearly crushed him, even with his armor.

"I did have an objection," said Samus Aran as she pulled away from him.

"What-?" Adam said just before being interrupted by the man who had ordered him into the box.

"How touching…" he said cheerfully as he ran past them towards the center of the room. "All right, Sammy!"

"Don't call me that," Samus complained.

"We got your friend out of the fire, in one piece, might I add. Where do you want to go next?" He pressed several buttons and pulled levers as he ran around the large circular structure.

"How about somewhere that's not going to explode?" the Hunter suggested.

"Oh, but where's the fun in that?" the man answered. "Oh! I know! How about we go see the birth of the Roman Empire! I'm thinking, you have an Earth in this universe, so your history should be more or less the same. We could go party with Bacchus! Oh, does he know how to pull a party!"

"Whatever," Samus replied. She turned to Adam, who was looking around at the massive inside of the TARDIS. "Yeah, it's bigger on the inside. I'll explain how I got here later. For now, you've got some reading to do to catch up with the times." She handed him a PDA loaded with everything he would need to know. "Doctor, get us out of here."

"With pleasure… Sammy."

Samus rolled her eyes. "You're an idiot."

"And you're a spoilsport. Off we go!" And with that, the TARDIS disappeared from the Bottle Ship.

-o-

**Blade: ADAM'S ALIIIIVE!**

**Lycaon: Don't forget that half the Metroid fandom hates his guts for no good reason. We probably just pissed off a lot of people.**

**Blade: I just don't get it, though. All he did was be a loving father figure for Samus and willingly give his life to save her, even though she wasn't even an official part of his squad.**

**Lycaon: Eh, people will find any reason to hate things. Personally, I relate to the guy for a number of reasons that I'd rather not get into, because lazy.**

**Blade: Well, haters gonna hate and potatoes gonna potate.**

**Lycaon: Don't ever say that again. That was unbelievably dumb. No offense.**

**Blade: None taken. *to the audience* Thank you for reading this, our good readers! This is BladeOfThePoet, logging out!**

**Lycaon: Now let's go punch a dragon in the face. And no, it's not Ridley. And no, that's not foreshadowing. Seriously.**

**Blade: Yeah. Just because I say "the Ing are alive" doesn't mean they are.**

**Lycaon: *sighs* How much you wanna bet people are still gonna make outlandish theories about those things?**

**Blade: Meh, I don't gamble with things like that… only with cards.**

**Lycaon: Fair enough. Farewell, lesser beings! We still love you!**

**Blade: Except flamers. We don't like flamers. Readers don't like flamers. Flamers don't like flamers… nobody likes flamers!**

**Lycaon: Regardless, they shall be loved and tolerated until they puke rainbows. Later.**


	2. Non-Story: Announcement and Request

******Lycaon: Hello. I'm on my own for now. Now listen up, people. If you're going to leave a review on this story that Blade or I will likely respond to, I suggest you do so while on your account. If you don't have one, make one, and THEN leave a review so that we may respond via PM. Now, we had a guest review on chapter 2 regarding my comment of "half the Metroid fandom hates him (Adam Malkovich) for no good reason." First of all, that was a joke. I can see all the flaws in his character and why people would hate him so much. However, he's not just a one-dimensional jerk. He still conveys a sense of authority, still acts as a father figure for Samus, still as her friend. The only reason he shot her with his freeze gun is so that she wouldn't engage a Metroid that could have been invulnerable to cold. Sure, it was an infant, but there's still a lot we know about the Metroid that were mutated by the Federation. As such, the Metroid could've had any number of tricks ready. As for Other M shoving the Prime trilogy into discontinuity: seriously? It's actually very simple. The Prime trilogy actually occurred BEFORE the events of Other M and Super Metroid, but after the events of the original Metroid. Seriously, check the timeline before saying something like that. I did. In fact, here it is for those of you too lazy to look it up for yourselves:******

******Metroid/Zero Mission (ZM was, of course, a remake of the original)******

******Prime******

******Prime Hunters******

******Prime 2: Echoes******

******Prime 3: Corruption******

******Metroid 2: Return of Samus******

******Super Metroid******

******Other M******

******Fusion******

******So, yeah, I'm pretty sure they all fit into the timeline fairly well. For those of you who are more polite and open-minded, I request that you leave reviews in a manner that we can respond without wasting space where we could put a chapter. Thank you, and have a fantastic day, all of you.******


	3. Thieves of Form, Part 1

_Samus Aran's Log: Entry 6_

_While investigating a strange energy spike over the mining world of Krawna, I met a strange man who only calls himself "the Doctor." He had apparently entered this universe through a warp in space-time, albeit accidentally, while being chased by a race of hostile aliens he called the "Weeping Angels," living statues that throw people back in time and feed on the resulting energy surge. We were able to destroy the Angels before they did any significant damage, thankfully. Well, I say "destroy," but, in reality, we sent them to an inescapable dark dimension via the Darkburst, which the Doctor had somehow upgraded so that all my charge combo weapons can work in conjunction with the Seeker Missile function of my arm cannon. Really, though, it's the same thing, I suppose._

_Using some kind of psychic technology, the Doctor convinced a squadron of Federation troopers to let me go free. However, when I got back to my ship, he suggested that I could go with him. I was reluctant, at first, but there was just something about him that persuaded me to say yes._

_His ship, the TARDIS - Time And Relative Dimensions In Space - is true to its name. With it, we went back in time to save my friend, mentor, and father figure, Adam Malkovich. It's still hard to believe that Adam is alive again. I wonder what else I could do with the TARDIS… _

_Anyway, I plan to update this log whenever something happens. I get the feeling this thing is going to see a lot more use._

-o-

The large room shook from side to side, up and down as they travelled across the time stream. The Doctor was smiling from ear to ear at the rumbling, while Samus and Adam held on to the railings for dear life. The latter was, mostly, shocked after reading what had happened since the last time Samus had seen him. That was another thing: the Samus next to him was from the future… or the present? Honestly, time was confusing him now. He still couldn't believe, however, that the Federation had marked her down as a traitor for what she had done on the BSL station and the planet it orbited. She had every right to do so! It was either the planet or the galaxy! What was the Federation _thinking_ when they decided to experiment with the X Parasites?

'_I declined that project dozens of times for a reason! Damn the Federation!' _the commander thought angrily. '_Those sons of… They always make the wrong call and ignore obvious evidence of a massive threat until it's too late! And even THEN they ignore the consequences and keep going! Idiots!'_

Eventually, the room stopped shaking, and the Doctor beamed at his companions. "Well, now that we're safely away from that planet full of brain-eating parasites, where do you want to go next? Forwards in time? Backwards? Oh, maybe we could go to present day Earth! I've been curious what it looks like in this universe!"

Samus was panting and groaned as she leaned against the railing. Since joining up with the Doctor, she had faced an army of living statues, seen the Earth get enveloped by the sun, and, most recently, was almost killed by a swarm of the aforementioned brain-eating parasites that had managed to wipe out an entire squadron of Federation marines. She needed a break. She looked over to Adam, who looked almost sick. He could probably go for brief vacation as well.

"Somewhere simple," Samus suggested. "Or… some… _when_… whatever the term for that would be. I would very much prefer NOT to be murdered by local wildlife." '_But with my luck, we'll end up somewhere like that regardless.' _The Doctor's grin didn't exactly help calm her down, either.

"I know just the place!" he said, his grin still plastered on. "Hopefully the coordinates won't be any different. I'm really just drawing a blank here, but when I was a younger, my family and I went to this really nice planet. Nice sunsets, beautiful mountains and a lush jungle. Planet Zebes, here we go!" Samus gasped at what he said.

"NO! NO WAY IN HELL!" The Doctor stared at her with a surprised look. The Hunter calmed herself and sighed. "I… I'm sorry. It's just… well, first off, that planet was destroyed a few years back." She stood straight and turned away from the Doctor. "I'm going to my room. I'd… prefer to be alone." With that, she left the room, leaving Adam with the Doctor, the latter of whom gave the former an odd, questioning look.

For a few moments, Adam managed to resist an obvious attempt at prying information from him. However, that look that the Doctor had was the kind that no one could ignore for long, and he eventually relented.

"Samus was raised on Zebes by a race called the Chozo," he explained. "They were wiped out when the Space Pirates invaded to capture the Chozo's bioweapons, dubbed Metroids. Eventually, Samus went back, wiped out the Pirates, and ended up destroying the entire planet." The Doctor looked surprised, but sighed.

"She must've seen so much evil, that girl…" he said glumly. "Especially for a human… Poor thing. And I can sense that the death of the Chozo is a fixed point in time. If we went back and saved someone, it would cause a lot of trouble."

Adam nodded in agreement. He was fairly well-read in theoretical physics. Going back in time to save somebody who died could potentially cause astronomical consequences. The Butterfly Effect, he believed it was called. "She's grown strong because of it. But she's also grown distant. She rarely lets people in, and I doubt being a fugitive from the law helps her any. Hell, it's amazing she trusted you enough to travel with you." He stood straight and approached the console, standing next to the Doctor. "I suggest we go somewhere relatively safe. Somewhere we won't be hunted down by the Federation, or nearly murdered by local wildlife." The Doctor thought about it…

"This Federation of yours… it's fairly recent, right?" Adam nodded, remembering that the Doctor's idea of 'recent' was probably vastly different from his own. The Doctor's ear-to-ear grin returned. "Then let's go to Earth! Far before the Federation was founded! I'd like to see them get her _there_!" The ship started lurching and shaking everywhere again, with the Doctor running around the console typing, pushing buttons, pulling levers, turning dials and everything else one could think of.

-o-

Samus's mind was plagued with thoughts. Memories, really. She couldn't stop herself from remembering the ones who raised her, her friends and the ones she had considered family. Old Bird was chief among these memories. She remembered Old Bird's kindly disposition, how he'd beam at her whenever she completed a test of some sort, how he would fix up her favorite meals on her birthday. He was like a grandfather to her, and was likely the closest thing to one she would ever have.

'_Why did they have to die?'_ she asked herself, knowing she would likely never get an answer. She could still remember the first time she met the elderly bird, which happened to be the last day she saw her parents… Their faces were mere blurs now… A tear flowed down her cheek. God, she couldn't even remember her parents' faces!

A part of her wanted to scream. A part of her wanted to stay calm. Yet another part of her kept berating her for feeling this way. It was astounding how the mention of a single word could be so devastating to her. A fourth part of her suddenly felt like punching the Doctor in the jaw for even _thinking_ of going to Zebes of all places. It took all she had to suppress that urge. It took all of her willpower to resist screaming her lungs out. Hell, it even took all of her strength to simply resist the urge to suppress all of her emotions all at once. That would be worse than counterproductive.

Through all of this mental turmoil, she barely heard a knock at her door and a voice accompanying it. "Samus? It's Adam. The Doctor brought us somewhere I think you'll appreciate."

"If he's brought us to another uncharted world for the sake of exploration, I'm not interested."

"It's nothing like that," Adam replied. "He brought us to Earth, prior to the founding of the Galactic Federation." Samus looked at her father figure, completely shocked.

"He did what?" She asked, incredulous.

"You heard me. He said the Federation isn't even an idea right now."

She stared at him for a few moments more. She turned away from him and sighed. She had to admit, it would be nice to go to Earth without the Federation hunting her down. And there were a few cities on Earth she would've liked to visit as well. Seeing them in their prime would probably be even better.

"What year?" she asked.

"2032," Adam answered. "Just a few days before the first successful manned mission to Mars."

Samus nodded. "Let me try to find an outfit better suited to the time period. I doubt my Zero Suit would blend in very well." Adam chuckled at that and nodded before leaving her to her own devices. Samus then turned to the closet in her room, which had all manner of clothing from God-only-knows how many time periods. Thankfully, the Doctor (or maybe the TARDIS itself) had arranged them in chronological order for the sake of convenience. Still, it would probably take a while to find something practical.

-o-

Not five minutes later, the three of them were walking down the busy streets of London, England. It hadn't taken Samus as long as she thought it would to find something practical to wear. It was as if the TARDIS had read her mind and produced the perfect outfit for her. She wore a simple orange t-shirt, with form fitting, knee-length blue denim shorts and a pair of simple yet functional sneakers. She silently thanked the TARDIS for the clothing. She couldn't help but feel that the bizarre craft had picked the outfit out for her somehow.

Speaking of which, there was one thing about it that confused her. Oddly enough, people walked right past the big, blue box without so much as an odd look. The Doctor said it was because humans don't pay attention to things that look so dull. She had to admit, the man had a point. She would have missed many secrets in her travels if not for her visor highlighting seemingly normal things, like a rock that hid a tunnel or a weakened part of a wall concealing a weapon depot. It still didn't explain one thing…

"Why London?" the bounty hunter asked, looking around the city. The Doctor's mammoth ear to mammoth ear grin returned.

"Why not London?" he answered. "It's such a great city. So full of history. I've always loved coming here." The Doctor turned his attention to the Big Ben. "Ah, the good old Big Ben. I was here when it was opened. Well, in my universe, at least. I also stopped a Dalek invasion at the time. I was a much younger man back then. Barely reached my first hundred years."

"Dalek?" Adam inquired.

"Very nasty things. They look like salt and pepper shakers with a plunger for a hand."

Samus scoffed at the Doctor's description. "Doesn't sound very functional if you ask me. Downright stupid design, really."

"And yet they can destroy a whole species and their planet in a matter of weeks." The Doctor's smile vanished, clearly reminiscing of something _very_ bad. "My world fell prey to them. Biggest war in the history of the universe. It was dubbed the 'Time War…'"

The Hunter gave the Doctor a somewhat skeptical look at first. Her expression softened when she saw a certain look in his eyes that she herself was all too familiar with. She it saw just about every time she ever looked in a mirror. That same pain that no physical wound could match. He was alone. Even with her and Adam on his impossible ship, he was alone.

"I'm sorry," she muttered quietly.

"What?" the Doctor asked. Samus shook her head, a bit surprised he didn't hear her with his massive ears.

"Nothing. When's the mission to Mars supposed to launch again?"

Adam looked at the newspaper he had managed to get his hands on. "Day after tomorrow. Plenty of time for sightseeing. Never been to London, honestly. Might be a nice change of pace." The Doctor winced slightly, remembering how his 'vacations' to London often ended with an alien invasion. He decided to keep that little detail to himself. Who knows? New universe and all, maybe that could mean new rules.

Unknown to him, a ship orbiting Mars seemed to think differently.

-o-

"_Today is the day, ladies and gentlemen! This is the day we've all been waiting for! Today, five brave men and women from around the world will board the UNS Ares and launch into space to be the first humans to ever set foot on the surface of Mars!"_

The trio sat in a crowded bar - as per Samus's suggestion; she was strangely comfortable is such places - where dozens of people shoved into each other to get a clear view of the television displaying the historic report. The Doctor's psychic paper had guaranteed them a spot right in the front. Being an 'envoy for Her Majesty, the Queen' had its perks. The team from all around the globe waved at the crowd below them, cheerfully walking towards their ship.

"_And there's our astronauts, folks! We have Alex Shepard from the United States of America, Akiko Matsuoka from Japan, Thomas MacDougall from the United Kingdom, Sasha Kuznetsov from Russia, and Hong Chen from China! These five have been chosen as the best of the best in their home countries, and have trained tirelessly for this very moment." _The Doctor scoffed quietly at the description given. He loved Earth, and the human perseverance, but he knew that 'the best of the best' Earth had to offer were nowhere even close to the worst guys of the Shadow Proclamation.

"Please," said Samus in a tone that only Adam and the Doctor could hear. "Just one of us could mop the floor with all five of them single-handedly."

"To be fair," Adam replied, "this is the past to us. Standards were - or are - different in this period." He furrowed his brow, cogs turning in his brain. Eventually, he gave up with whatever he was thinking about and groaned, rubbing his temples to stop a headache. "God, I hate time travel already."

The Doctor shrugged. "You get used to it. Trust me, it could be a lot worse."

"I'll take your word for it."

"It could," The Doctor insisted. "You could be stuck here with these primitive apes with no way back to your time." He shuddered, probably thinking about the Weeping Angels.

"Again, I'll take your word for it."

"Oy!" somebody in the crowd shouted. "Quiet! They're about to launch!" The little group of runaways (plus a dead man) turned back to the screen. The countdown had reached the last 10 seconds. Many were nervously gripping at their food or glasses, praying to whoever they believed in that the launch would go well. The time travellers, however, just stared, their knowledge telling them nothing would go wrong with the mission.

'_And here's the countdown…'_ At the bottom left of the television, a timer appeared, ticking down from fifteen seconds. '_10… 9… 8...'_

"Never thought I'd actually see so many people be excited about going to Mars," Adam admitted.

'_7… 6...'_

"It's a historical moment," said Samus as she downed a shot of whiskey. "You know, I never understood why the British called their money 'pounds' in this day and age. Or why Americans called their money 'dollars.'"

'_5… 4...'_

"What brought that up?" Adam asked curiously.

"These last four shots of whiskey cost in total about… what? Eight pounds? Seriously, it's a stupid name for currency. Why didn't they just use credits from the start?" The Doctor shrugged in response.

"Humans have always been stupid apes. The people of this period couldn't even agree on what measuring system to use." The two humans within his earshot couldn't help but feel insulted at the man's words, but they couldn't deny the truth behind them.

'_3… 2...1… BLAST OFF!' _The entire pub started cheering as the shuttle began to lift off the ground, safely blasting it's way up to the stars. To the three time travellers, the shuttle was primitive and mostly ineffective, but cheered along anyway.

"Oh, I would love to see them try to leave the galaxy with that bucket of bolts." The Doctor muttered, amused. Samus turned to him, curious.

"Have _you_ been beyond the Milky Way?" she asked him, a small bit of childish curiosity gleaming in her eyes. The Doctor grinned happily at her.

"Of course I have!" He said. "I have seen more things than you can imagine! Remind me to tell you about the time I faced the Sontarans. A race of cloned warriors that look like steamed potatoes with legs and arms. They're hilarious to look at."

Samus raised an eyebrow at him, and shook her head. "I've had bad experiences with clones."

"Really?" the Doctor asked, his curiosity piqued.

Samus waved her hand dismissively. "Long story. Two, in fact. I might tell you later after we see the Mars team come back. Let's get back to our little cheat code."

"Oy! The TARDIS is _not_ a cheat code!" the Doctor huffed indignantly.

-o-

**Several days later…**

"MacDougall, you got anything?" Alex Shepard asked over the helmet-to-helmet comm-link.

"Rocks, rocks, and, oh! More rocks." came a sardonic tone from the Englishman on the other end. "Same as the last six times you asked me. Honestly, mate, I'm trying to enjoy the bloody scenery here."

Shepard rolled his eyes. On Mars for four days, and nothing of interest to show for it except rocks. He had personally hoped to find evidence that Mars had legitimate life on it once upon a time, but that was beginning to look like a pipe dream. Still, would've been nice.

"Matsuoka, Chen, got anything?"

"Nothing of interest," Matsuoka replied with her usual cool demeanor.

"No," Chen answered with an even colder tone.

Alex sighed and looked around his own search area. Nothing but red rocks, red sand, and red everything else. On the bright side, though, he could at least take pride in the fact that he got to be one of the first humans alive to ever set foot on the Red Planet.

"Shepard?" he heard Sasha Kuznetsov say over the comm. She had remained aboard the shuttle that now orbited Mars, managing data communications from Earth. "I am reading various strange signals."

"Signals?" Shepard inquired. "What do you mean?"

"I am not sure. They do not match up with known frequencies." She sounded a bit worried.

"Oh, calm down, Sasha. We're on Mars. It's probably some sort of electromagnetic interference," Shepard admonished the communications expert. "What else could it be, little green men?"

"No need to sound so condescending, mate," MacDougall said, injecting himself into the conversation. "Could be aliens. Find like that would get us in the history books."

"We're already in the history books, genius. First humans on Mars, remember?"

"But just picture it: first humans on Mars establish first contact with a new, intelligent life form. They'd raise us a bloody monument."

"Yeah, right after our governments swear us to secrecy while they dissect ET." If it could make a sound, Shepard bet he would've heard MacDougall rolling his eyes.

Meanwhile, on board the Ares, Sasha eyed numerous monitors, particularly the one that displayed the unusual frequencies. It didn't sit right with her. Something just felt wrong. Years of rigorous military training in a military family had taught her to trust her instincts above nearly all else, and her instincts were screaming right now. If Shepard wasn't going to do anything about this, then she will.

She quickly ran another comparative search to try and find a match for the frequency. It definitely wasn't electromagnetic interference. She'd seen plenty of that before, and this was not that. "What are...?"

A sudden clang from elsewhere on the shuttle made her jump. That couldn't have been one of her teammates. They were all down on the surface. She was on the shuttle alone.

Her instincts screamed at her to investigate. Preferably with an improvised weapon of some sort. Nodding to that, she exited the comm room and picked up a piece of equipment that the techs back at command insisted wasn't a crowbar, even though it looked and worked exactly like one.

Another clang. Outside of the comm room, she could now tell that it was coming from the small medbay. What could possibly be-?

A sharp pain tore through her back and out of her chest.

Upon the Red Planet, Shepard tried contacting Sasha, only to receive static in response. He quickly attempted to contact the others, which he had more luck in, fortunately. "Guys, I'm having trouble reaching Kuznetsov. Might be interference. Can you guys reach her?"

"I can try," the Japanese astronaut said, turning towards the shuttle "Huh? N-NANI!?" The woman's voice was filled with fear. "Sorera no koto wa nandesuka!? I-IE! YAMETE! YAME-" The transmission was cut after gargled screams of pain.

"A-Akiko?" Shepard asked, spooked from what he just heard. "Akiko, come in. Come in, Akiko! Say something!" To his dread, the one that answered wasn't Akiko, but Hong Chen.

"Shepard! You heard that too, right?"

"Of course I did! What the hell did she say?" He immediately regretted not going to those foreign language classes when he was a kid.

"I am not entirely sure. I think it was something like _'What are those things?'_ followed by what seemed to be… begging for whatever it was to stop."

Shepard cursed. "Chen, MacDougall, we're going back to the lander!"

"What about Matsuoka?" MacDougall asked.

"I think it's safe to assume what happened to her. Get your asses back on the lander. We're getting off this damned rock!"

"On my-" Chen began. He was interrupted by his own screams.

"Chen? What's going on?" Shepard waited for a response. "Chen!? Chen, respond!"

"Shepard, I see something!" MacDougall called.

"Whatever the hell it is, ignore it and get the hell back to the lander! That's an order!"

"Right. I-" The Englishman's voice was cut off by static.

"MacDougall?" He waited for a response. Nothing. Once again, he cursed in a particularly colorful manner. He immediately turned and sprinted as fast as the Martian atmosphere would allow in the direction of the lander. All the way, he kept trying to raise Kuznetsov. The lander came into sight, and for a moment he figured he'd be safe… Until a shadow loomed over him…

… And that was the last thing he saw.

**Later that day, on Earth**

The time travelling trio was currently in the hotel room. The Doctor had been fiddling with his screwdriver, making everything compatible with their technology, while Adam kept checking the news channels for anything interesting, occasionally commenting on who would win a sports tournament or saying who would be the next to win. Not many knew of the General's love for sports, particularly football and soccer. Samus was next to him, her back resting on the back of the couch and forming a perfect inverted V (which Adam found to be both fascinating and unnerving at the same time).

"Samus, how on _Earth_ do you even do that?" Adam asked, no longer being able to keep his curiosity contained. The Doctor peered through a doorway.

"How does she do wha- What in the… !?" The man's face looked like a combination of surprise, awe, and slight terror. To further increase their surprise, Samus turned her torso around so that she'd be facing the floor, her hands providing support while her lower half stayed still.

"What, this? This is nothing." Her voice held no strain, no quiver, nothing that would indicate she was making any kind of effort. "I've had years of training, and more to hone the skills I'd developed." She moved to a more conventional sitting position. "Then again, I suppose all the genetic enhancements help."

"Genetic enhancements?" the Doctor said with a curious face. "What do you mean?"

The blond bounty hunter sighed and waved her hand dismissively. "It's complicated. Besides, I'd rather not talk about it. All you need to know is that I'm genetically superior to most humans. Faster, stronger, that sort of thing."

"And your spine's like a wet noodle…" Adam muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." The commander quickly amended, knowing Samus would not hesitate to punch him hard enough to break his bones. Well, more like she'd try to punch him playfully and end up forgetting how strong she was and _then_ break his bones. Some of her friends/teammates when she was a soldier experience it first hand. In fact, a new term was born in the medical wing for this kind of injuries: "the Samus Condition" they called it.

Shaking the thought from his head, he returned his attention to the television, continuing to flip through channels.

_"-Griffin IV is-"_

_"-add a little pepper-"_

_"-word from the Ares-"_

_"-are the Weakest Link!"_

The Doctor suddenly perked up from his current workplace. "Hang on! Change it back." Adam did as ordered, arriving at a news channel giving a report about the mission Mars.

_"-has lost contact with the team on Mars,"_ the anchorwoman said. _"NASA, the presiding organization over the Mars mission, assures us that this is most likely a combination of time lag and the possibility of unpredicted interference of some sort, likely some form of radiation."_

Samus narrowed her eyes. She had learned long ago to trust her gut, and right now, her gut was telling her that something was up, and it wasn't good. "Doctor, Adam..."

"Yeah," Adam said with a nod of agreement. "Something's not right." The two turned to the Doctor, who seemed in deep thought.

"What's on your mind, Doctor?" The blonde asked.

He turned to them, confusion evident in his face. "I just remembered a species that lived on Mars centuries ago, when the planet was like a huge block of ice…" He walked towards them, a frown plastered on his face. "The Martians were also known as the Ice Warriors, but I doubt it's them. There's no way for them to survive on modern Mars…"

"Which means you don't know what's going on?" Samus inquired, dread in her gut at the thought of the Doctor not knowing what went wrong. To her surprise, and Adam's, he grinned.

"Nope! Come on, let's go see!" He jumped over the couch to grab his coat and the keys to the TARDIS. "Who's up for a quick trip to Mars?"

-o-

Samus knelt down on the crimson surface, brushing her hand through the sandy ground, the grains falling between her armored fingers. The only color for miles around was a rusty red, save for the bright blue of the TARDIS and Adam's Federation armor. The two were patiently waiting for the Doctor to join them outside.

"Been a while since I've been to Mars," Adam commented. "It's a lot different here in 2032."

Samus nodded in agreement. The lack of human colonies made the world feel dead. Well, technically, it was, being a barren, red wasteland. There was a strange comfort to it. Nothing here to do, really, but nothing to kill you, either. The Hunter always embraced that feeling, though she never truly let her guard down.

She turned to the TARDIS and reached to activate her helmet's communicator. "Doctor, what the hell is taking you so long? Did you get lost in your own ship or something? I doubt those astronauts have a lot of time, if any."

"Coming!" was the reply from the last Time Lord. He came out of the Tardis wearing an orange, air-tight suit with a large helmet. Compared to Samus's armor and Adam's Federation armor, it looked old and completely out of place.

Samus scoffed at the garment. "Doctor, you're a time traveler. Why are you using such an old model? That thing belongs in a museum." The Doctor looked offended at her words.

"Oh, come on." His heavily accented voice buzzed out of his suit's comm systems. "It's amazing! Great color, good for running, breathes well…" With each passing day, the bounty hunter and the commander were losing their doubts about the Doctor being insane.

"Power-armored hardsuits can do all those things and more, Doctor," Adam pointed out. "If you don't like the color, get it repainted. They have support for your legs and arms to increase muscle efficiency, active heads-up displays to monitor shield levels and ammunition. Hell, some species even have on-board toilets in their hardsuits."

"Okay, I'm going to stop both of you right there," Samus spoke up. "Besides, we have some missing astronauts to find. For all we know, they could be dead, or worse."

"All right, fair enough," the Doctor admitted. "But I want to hear about those on-board toilets later. They sound remarkably convenient!"

Samus was grateful for her visor blocking her expression. Adam and the Doctor would never let her live down such a bizarre mix of embarrassed and irritated blushing. "Let's just go before I change my mind about this."

-o-

Five beings observed a single image displayed through the eye of camera, watching as the three travelers wandered upon the Martian surface, most likely searching for the missing humans. One of them waved a hand, and another nodded and left the room, leaving the other four alone for now.

-o-

The rust red ground shifted under the push and pull of the Martian winds, sand flying around and lifting like fog the color of a yellow sun setting over the horizon, and orange and red spiraling into little dust devils that spun in and out of existence. From Adam and the Doctor's point of view, it was sometimes difficult to keep an eye on Samus, whose orange and yellow armor occasionally blended with the environment. Thankfully, she never went too far ahead of them, knowing full well that she would likely lose her two companions.

"Anything on your scanners, Samus?" Adam asked.

"Just dirt, sand, and rocks," the Hunter replied. "I'll adjust for any anomalies."

"How many scanners do you have in that armor of yours?" the Doctor inquired curiously.

"Any you can think, and probably a few I don't even know about."

The Doctor got a slightly devious grin at that response. "How about something that scan for trace amounts of chronal energy?"

Samus only shrugged. "Like I said, I probably have a few systems in this suit that I haven't discovered yet. Back on the Bottle Ship, I found a device that activated something for my arm cannon called the Diffusion Beam."

"Diffusion, eh? Could I get a demonstration?"

"We're a little busy at the moment, Doctor," Samus chided. "I can show you later, though. Just keep an eye out for anything…" She trailed off, stopping in her tracks and looking around. Adam and the Doctor looked to each other, then to the woman ahead of them. "Scans just picked something up. And it's moving."

"Toward us?" Adam asked, holding up his rifle, keeping an eye out for anything moving.

"Yep."

"Fantastic," the Doctor said with a huge, eager grin. Adam gave him an odd look, but shook his head. Either the Doctor was way too excitable for his own good, or he had mental issues. Or both.

Samus stood with her arm cannon raised slightly, ready for action. The radar in her helmet's heads-up display showed something headed their way. At times like this, she wished it could give her actual sizes for things like this. She had to remember to get the thing updated for that. Maybe the Doctor could do that for her with that screwdriver of his.

Whatever the thing was, it was coming from the northeast. She aimed her cannon in that direction, Adam doing the same with his rifle, while the Doctor fiddled with his sonic screwdriver, probably setting it for something.

A figure appeared over the horizon, standing atop an outcropping of rock. It was difficult to make out the actual shape and size with how far away it was. Samus found herself wishing she had that zoom feature installed in her helmet's visor. Too late now, she told herself.

Suddenly, the figure leaped into the air, flying with what appeared to be a smoke trail following it. It flew through the air, soon making its way toward them, barreling at the trio with startling speed.

Then, it started firing bolts of purple electrical energy at them, barely giving them enough time to evade the blasts that singed the ground where they once stood. Samus and Adam rolled out of the way, while the Doctor jumped and landed belly-down on the ground. The Hunter and former Federation officer opened fire on their attacker, bullets and energy bolts flying at the thing, which was moving too fast for either of them to get a good look at it.

"Oi!" the Doctor shouted, ducking under the attacks. "Stop shooting already! She might be friendly!"

"_She?"_ Samus screeched from her suit, still shooting at the creature. Something about the way it moved seemed… familiar. Disturbingly so. And those bolts it fired. Dark memories surged… memories of the fellow hunters she once called friends and allies. Then, something clicked in her head. '_There's no way…'_ She thought in shock as she tried to lock on to the creature, no longer shooting.

"Yes, _she_!" the Doctor yelled back. "You can stop trying to kill her now!"

"She fired first!" Adam hollered. One round from his rifle met its mark, striking the creature in its left leg and knocking it out of the sky. It crashed with a painful thud, skidding across the ground until it finally stopped.

The strange creature before them stumbled as it tried to stand again, its body suddenly enveloped in purple sparks of energy. When the sparks disappeared, there stood a figure that made Samus gape in shock. Before them stood a humanoid being with a feminine shape, her skin a vibrant purple, and almost transparent, save for her face, which looked much more solid. Samus quickly recognized the person in front of them, even with her looking younger than the Hunter remembered.

"Gandrayda…"

The Doctor perked up at her statement. "Sorry? Who's Gandrayda?"

"She's…" Samus hesitated. "She _was_ a friend."

"Ok." The Doctor said cheerfully, not wanting to press the issue. He knelt in front of the shapeshifter. "So, what brings you here? You don't look like a local."

The pink-violet woman glared at them, sneering as she held her wounded leg. She yelled at them in some language that the Doctor didn't understand, which baffled him somewhat. Then again, this was a completely different universe from what he was used to. There were bound to be a few things he didn't immediately know. In truth, the very idea of discovering something that no other Time Lord had ever even heard of made him positively giddy.

"Doctor," Samus said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Let me try." With a shrug, he nodded and let Samus kneel in his place. The Hunter faced Gandrayda, who only continued glaring at her. Then, she began to speak in Gandrayda's language, further astounding the Doctor and catching the shapeshifter off guard.

The Doctor looked to Adam, who shrugged, clearly not understanding what Samus might've been saying either. Both men simply stood and waited, shuffling as Samus and the young Gandrayda conversed. The Hunter would occasionally pause, as if thinking on her words before speaking again. Gandrayda would sometimes do the same, though likely because she didn't trust any of them, for understandable reasons.

Soon, Samus stood and faced her two friends. "Doctor, we need to take her to the TARDIS. She needs medical treatment. She won't say anything of any real interest until we fix her leg."

Adam flinched, a guilty look on his face hidden behind his visor.

Samus helped Gandrayda back to her feet as best she could and began leading her back in the direction of the TARDIS. "Well, er, okay, I suppose?" the Doctor stammered as the bounty walked by him. He wasn't used to being the one taking orders.

-o-

"General, Gandrayda has failed."

The general glared at the younger soldier with disdain, cursing under his breath. Never send a woman to do a man's job. He should've taken that into consideration in the first place. "Is she alive?"

"She was captured by the new humans, sir," the soldier replied. "Should we send a rescue party?"

He deliberated on that for a few moments. "No. They will likely interrogate her for information. We can use that time to accelerate our plans. Go and alert the others of this change." The soldier reluctantly nodded and left the general alone. The old warrior turned to a console monitor that displayed an image of the human homeworld. Looking at it, it looked so much like home…

No, he needed to focus. His home was gone. This "Earth" will become his new home. There was just the matter of… eviction.

-o-

It didn't take the trio long to get the shapeshifter into the TARDIS. Granted it would've been a lot easier if she didn't transform into a random life-form whenever a spike of pain erupted from her leg (it wasn't exactly easy to lug a Grenchler around). Once inside, the Doctor started shuffling around the insane amounts of junk he kept underneath the TARDIS's console

"Ah, here it is!" He pulled out a small, empty phial. Samus sighed in annoyance at the man.

"Doctor, we need some REAL medical equipment. How's an empty bottle going to help?" The man simply grinned dumbly at her before opening the bottle, in a way that its contents (if there were any) would've spilled on Gandrayda's burned leg. Samus was about to punch the man's grin right of his face when she saw the burn wound rapidly heal. "What in the name of..."

"Air from the planet Asterian" the Doctor answered. "Excellent healing balm, particularly for shapeshifters." The Doctor scrunched his nose. "And it smells like roses for some reason." Adam shook his head at the man's antics. That air had fixed a type 3 laser burn in mere seconds, and he talked about the smell. He then noticed Samus make some strange, eagle like noises.

He coughed lightly. "Samus, we don't speak Chozo."

"Caw?" Samus blushed furiously. "I-I mean, huh?" Inwardly, she was cursing her own lack in attention. If she was surprised enough by something (seeing a woman she was forced to kill and helping heal her, for example) she'd often revert to a slightly butchered version of the Chozo language. Not having a beak made it a bit hard for any non-Chozo to speak it.

"Samus, can I speak to you for a moment?" The Doctor said suddenly. "Privately?" The blonde nodded, still embarrassed of her slip.

The two went to the other side of the main room, far enough so that Adam and the unconscious shapeshifter couldn't hear them. "What is it Doctor?" The man looked at the shapeshifter for a moment, then back at Samus.

"How did she die?" The question caught her off guard, having been expecting... anything else, really. Honestly, she would've preferred any other question. She sighed heavily, knowing she'd have to get it off her chest sooner or later.

"... I killed her." Now it was the Doctor's turn to be caught off guard. "Oh, don't give me that look. I had no choice. She'd been corrupted by Phazon and-" The Doctor grabbed her shoulders, a wild, terrified look in his eyes.

"Phazon? Did you just say Phazon?"

Samus nodded. "Y-yeah, it's an..."

"Extremely radioactive, mutagenic substance that travels in organic meteors and is usually blue?" The huntress stared at him. There was no way he could've known that... Was there? He saw her questioning eyes, and spoke before she could. "We'll talk later. We have something else to deal with right now."

Before he got too far, Samus grabbed him by his arm. "I don't think so. How the hell do you know what Phazon is? You're from another universe entirely, aren't you?" The man hung his head in shame.

"700 years ago, my homeworld of Gallifrey was experiencing a heavy energy crisis. I had just been given the rank of Time Lord, and when the other members of the council discussed the creation of a new, organic energy source, they dismissed my advice against it, as well as the Corsair's - a late friend of mine." He went to the main console and showed her a file, written entirely in circular Gallifreyan, but the image was unmistakable: Phazon.

"They managed to create a new, organic element," he continued. "One that could fuel our vehicles, weapons, and appliances for far longer and far more efficiently than any other known element. They were too blinded by their success to notice the drastic changes it was causing to the flora and fauna around it. It even managed to attach to a small creature we called a star-tyke, organic meteorites that travel the stars, and used the shell to move around. The Corsair and I had no choice... We guided the corrupted star-tyke to the edge of the universe, and tossed it into the void between dimensions." He pinched the bridge of his nose, despair settling in. "We never... I never thought it'd be able to enter another universe. "

Samus blinked at him is disbelief, unsure of what to think at that moment. His people were responsible for one of the greatest threats to the known universe ever? And it was _his _fault that said threat made it to her universe in the first place? This was…

"Stupid," she said flatly. "Your people were idiots to create something so volatile. Do you have any idea what kind of damage that stuff did before we were able eradicate it? Do you have any idea how many good people lost their lives to that abomination? How many friends I had to kill because they couldn't fight the corruption?" She was going to continue berating him, when she noticed it: a single, solitary tear sliding down his cheek.

"... I guess I have even more blood in my hands, then." He turned away from her, going further into the seemingly infinite ship. "Call me when the shapeshifter's healed…" He tried not to show it, but Samus could see through his mask. She saw the pure, unrestrained waves of self-loathing and guilt.

The selfsame guilt that she faced whenever she had a lull between missions. The feeling of not having done all one could, or worse, actually doing all one could and still facing terrible consequences. It was a feeling she was all too familiar with, and it wasn't one she particularly enjoyed.


End file.
